Fourth-ranked Elks oust Warriors

SARTELL - It wasn't the best way to end a successful season, but the Brainerd Warriors team and both doubles teams were eliminated Tuesday from the Section 8-2A tournament in Sartell.

Brainerd fell to the fourth-ranked Elk River Elks 7-0 in the semifinals. Elk River went on to win the section with a 7-0 victory over the St. Cloud Tech Tigers.

"Some of the talk down there was that Elk River might be the team to beat at state," said Warriors head coach Bruce Thompson. "With Edina getting knocked out, Elk River has a good chance. They're that good."

Brainerd's No. 1 doubles team of Rud-Askegaard played the only third set in the section semifinals and the Warriors lost three first-set tiebreakers.

"If we win those that might change the complexion of the that match, but they're a good team," said Thompson. "Our guys had a good year and I think we got more out of them than most people expected. We had five first-year varsity players. Overall, if you look at the year I think we did more than what was expected of us. We're proud of the way our kids played. They can walk away knowing they played the best they could."

In the individual tournament Rud-Askegaard fell to Matt Odegard-Tanner Krutzig of St. Michael-Albertville 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round. Jordan Goos and Jordan Posch fell to Elk River's seventh-grade brother tandem of Sam and Josh Gearou 6-0, 6-2.

"These guys have been in a tennis club for the last four years and they are just good," said Thompson. "They don't have the strength of seniors, but they're good serves and have good ground strokes. They're just solid and they'll lob over you when you come to the net and hit some nice crossing shots.

"The guys from St. Michael played well. They're really good servers. Our guys played well, but they got outplayed from a serve return stand point. We just couldn't keep up with them. They broke our serve a couple of time. They were a good team."

Semifinals

Elk River 7, Brainerd 0

Singles

No. 1: Josh Gearou (ER) def. Cole Sundquist 6-0, 6-0

No. 2: Sam Gearou (ER) def. Jordan Shiltz 6-1, 6-0

No. 3: Ryan Ness (ER) def. Jordan Posch 7-6 (6-2), 6-4

No. 4: Robert Johnson (ER) def. Robert Posch 6-0, 7-5

Doubles

No. 1: Mitchell Brandell-Josh Chuba (ER) def. Chris Rud-Garth Askegaard 6-1, 1-6, 6-2

No. 2: Zach Steichen-Dylan Berger (ER) def. Jordan Goos-Gunner Askegaard 6-0, 7-6 (7-5)

No. 3: Travis Banken-Kurt Anderson (ER) def. Trent Anderson-Dylan Wheeler 7-6 (9-7), 6-1

Next: Brainerd finishes 12-3.

Individual doubles tournament

Quarterfinals: Matt Odegard-Tanner Krutzig (SMA) def. Chris Rud-Garth Askegaard (Brd) 6-2, 6-2

Sam Gearou-Josh Gearou (ER) def. Jordan Goos-Jordan Posch (Brd) 6-2, 6-0

Next: Brainerd in Section 8-2A individual finals 9 a.m. Wednesday at St. Cloud Apollo.